Aging population hits record high in Japan

Indo Asian News Service

16 September 2013

Tokyo, Sep 16 (IANS) The Japanese government said Sunday that population of elders aged above 65 hit a record high at 31.86 million as of Sunday, an increase of 1.12 million from previous year, media reported.

The figure was up 0.9 percent to 25 percent and was based on births and deaths registered since a census in 2010, said Japan's Kyodo News, quoting the internal affairs ministry, Xinhua reported.

This means that one in four people in the country are aged over 65.

The ministry said in a demographic estimate that the record high figure was trigger by the baby boom after the World War II.

According to Japan's National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, it will be one in three people in Japan to be aged above 65 by the year of 2035.

The number of male aged over 65 stood at 13.69 million, about 22.1 percent of the overall male population, while 18.18 million female were aged over 65, 27.8 of the total female population, said the report.

It also said that of all the population aged over 65, about 27.9 percent of men and 13.2 percent of women remained part of the labour force.